Heritage Auctions Sells Sandy Koufax Game Worn Fielder's Glove
by Hector Cantu
Umpire Received Gift From Legend In His Final Year Of Play
One night in a Milwaukee bar, Major League Baseball umpires Doug Harvey and Jocko Conlan were having a drink when Sandy Koufax walked in.
After some small talk, Koufax departed — and left behind his World Series lighter with his name and an image of Dodger Stadium engraved on it. Harvey picked it up.
"I carried it around until the next time I saw him," Harvey recalls in Jane Leavy's biography Sandy Koufax, A Lefty's Legacy (Harper Perennial paperback, $13.95). "He gave me his glove as a way of saying thanks."
That glove, consigned by Harvey's son, sold in Heritage Auctions' Sports Memorabilia Signature® Auction #714, sold for $107,550 on April 23, 2009.
Koufax (b. 1935) played his entire career for the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers, from 1955 to 1966. Before arthritis forced him to retire at age 30, he was named the National League's Most Valuable Player in 1963, and won the 1963, 1965, and 1966 Cy Young Awards by unanimous votes. Koufax gave his glove to Harvey during his final season in 1966. It's inscribed "To Doug, Very Best Wishes Sandy Koufax."
"This glove bore witness to true greatness," says Chris Ivy, director of sports auctions at Heritage Auctions. "Its rock-solid provenance, paired with the supreme historical relevance of this rare piece, elevates it to true Cooperstown quality."
This is only the second Koufax fielder's glove to reach the auction block in the past decade, notes Ivy.
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| 1966 Sandy Koufax Game Worn Fielder's Glove. Sold: Heritage Auctions, April, 2009, $107,550 |
Heritage Magazine Spring 2009 Copyright ©2009 by Heritage Auctions, Inc.
